Active Member

"I'm helping lobbying for an enterprise zone - as requested by club - worked with council on how to improve viability of NDP work with club and council on how GLA, Mayor and DCMS can help." This is what David Lammy MP tweeted to me in response to my question asking him what he was doing to help get a bigger and better WHL.

It wasn't Newham Council's decision, but I always found it slightly strange that Newham didn't want both West Ham and Tottenham in the borough, at least it shows they're not all about the money and they have some principles, a lesson Mr Levy could do with learning. Or maybe West Ham were just offering the largest brown envelopes.

Well-Known Member

It wasn't Newham Council's decision, but I always found it slightly strange that Newham didn't want both West Ham and Tottenham in the borough, at least it shows they're not all about the money and they have some principles, a lesson Mr Levy could do with learning. Or maybe West Ham were just offering the largest brown envelopes.

I would like to see which article suggested Newham would be better off without the addition of a solid Premier League team in their borough to add to their yo-yo Football League team. It is obvious that the addition of another big football club would have been good for the taxpayers in Newham, so there was clearly some other reason for Newham wanting West Ham to win the bid.

Well-Known Member

It wasn't Newham Council's decision, but I always found it slightly strange that Newham didn't want both West Ham and Tottenham in the borough, at least it shows they're not all about the money and they have some principles, a lesson Mr Levy could do with learning. Or maybe West Ham were just offering the largest brown envelopes.

Tottenham till I die, Stratford over my dead body

They should be paid bonuses based on delivering results of taxpayer value, I realise it would just be legalised corruption, but at least the taxpayer would be in charge of what the backhanders were being spent on.

I don't think the council have anything to worry about regarding votes in Newham, as the saying goes power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

There's a reason why they wouldn't want another big football club in the borough, we can rule certain things out, worrying about votes being one of them, but we can only speculate on the reason why.

If you ask me it's because brown envelopes talk, or maybe they were just voting on principle :rofl: I can't think of any other logical reasons. I'm glad they did, anything to stop us moving there is always going to get my support, but if anybody can come up with a good reason why Newham didn't want us I'd love to know.

Well-Known Member

Here we go, our appeal will cost the economy £100m. You don't need to be Rumpole of the Bailey to see which way the wind's blowing on this one...

The sports minister has urged Tottenham Hotspur to abandon legal action over the future of the Olympic Stadium, warning that London's bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships will be dead in the water unless the matter can be resolved soon.

Hugh Robertson said that unless the future of the stadium, awarded to West Ham by the Olympic Park Legacy Company but the subject of an ongoing legal challenge from Spurs, was decided by 1 September then the bid would have to be withdrawn.

"I would hope Tottenham would see the greater good to London, maybe it's a fond hope. The initial economic planning tells us it will be a £100m boost from hosting a World Athletics Championship," said Robertson. "I hope anyone involved in sport would see the greater good, whatever their feelings about the stadium process."

The timetable is tight because Robertson, mindful of previous embarrassments, is unwilling to commit to the bid unless the stadium's future is legally watertight. "I want to be ambitious for British sport and want my time as a minister of sport to be a time when British sport is leading the world. A bid for a World Athletics Championship is a really important legacy from 2012," said Robertson. "I find it frustrating that having been through the process we are now being dragged through the high court, having won the first round we have the appeal to come. If we win that we will bid, but I will not let the country bid if we have not got a locked-down secure venue, given the backdrop of previous bids."

A high court judge initially dismissed applications for judicial review of the OPLC decision from Leyton Orient and Spurs, but the north London club has requested an oral hearing. It expects it to be heard before the end of July but no court date has yet been fixed.

"We are caught between the court timetables and the IAAF timetable. We need to confirm a bid by 1 September. The key thing is if we can get Tottenham Hotspur's and Leyton Orient's appeal through the high court and, I would say, dismissed," said Robertson.

"We're in the queue and we don't have a date. If the high court is not settled we don't have a secure venue. That would make it very difficult to bid. It's not only reputation, it's unlikely the IAAF would look favourably."

The World Athletics Championships were due to be held in London in 2005, but had to be handed back after the construction of a promised new stadium at Picketts Lock foundered.

A bid was also considered for 2015, but had to be postponed with the Olympic Stadium's future not yet decided. Other countries, including Qatar, have since thrown their hat in the ring for 2017.

The World Championships are the only athletics event that would be guaranteed to fill the stadium after the Games, when West Ham propose to convert it into a 60,000-capacity mixed-use venue with a running track.

In the meantime, West Ham and the OPLC have also been embarrassed by the revelation that one of the legacy body's directors was conducting paid consultancy work for the east London club during the bidding process.

Both sides have launched internal reviews and insist that it had no impact on the outcome of the bidding process.

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